[ H O M E ]

Optimus, Isaac, or a little tin dog?

[ posted by One Who Webs Weirdly ]
Carnegie Mellon University's Robot Hall of Fame has announced that its 2006 induction ceremony will be held in June at the RoboBusiness robotics industry convention, just across the Monongohela River from CMU's main campus in Pittsburgh. And once again, the Hall is accepting nominations from the public -- hey, that's us! -- to aid in the judges' process of honoring the most significant real and fictional robots in history. As of today, online nominations are overwhelmingly in favor of everyone's favorite 1980s cartoon 'bot, Transformers icon Optimus Prime.

No shocker there, given the massive juggernaut that is American pop culture -- but in the same vein, it may indeed be a bit surprising that Futurama's sarcastic mechanoid Bender is only in fourth place. That's as it should be, though: No. 2 is representing for the U.K. science fiction scene with Doctor Who's robot dog K-9, and No. 3 is no less influential a figure than Isaac Asimov's most beloved and long-lived humanoid hero, R. Daneel Olivaw.

So how will the judges swing? In years past, they've included such elder statesmen as Arthur C. Clarke and Steve Wozniak, who might be expected to favor Daneel -- a character emblematic of Asimov, the Grand Master of science fiction who coined the very word "robotics," not to mention having provided the inspiration for Star Trek's immensely popular android Data. But Doctor Who is currently enjoying a renaissance on television, with K-9 due to make his triumphant return later this year. And there's no denying the love that an entire generation of geeks -- including plenty of today's cutting-edge young roboticists -- hold for Optimus Prime, who's practically Superman's cultural successor as the heroic, Lincolnesque father figure of compassionate steel we always wanted.

In each of the Hall's two previous slates of honorees, two real-world robots and two or three fictional ones were inducted -- which means there could be room for all three of 2006's odds-on favorites. If Prime and K-9 do make the cut, let's hope corporate parents Hasbro and the BBC are a bit less machine-minded than Lucasfilm was back in 2003, when they sent both Kenny Baker and a smiley corporate p.r. exec to Pittsburgh to accept R2-D2's induction -- but only allowed Smiley to take the microphone and speak. It was an insensitive gesture that made her seem like an empty suit -- which, you know, is exactly what R2-D2 would have been without Kenny Baker inside.
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04 April 2006 at 11:30 PM | permalink | 4 comments